Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The 1st Day of School

We survived and thrived through the first and second day of school. I had decided to do a three day week this week and then we are going camping next week. I wanted to try to see what was working and what I needed to change before starting full force on the 16th. Everyone did super well! Minus a few changes that have to be made I think plan A will work for now. We are enjoying doing fun stuff when school is over like going to the water park that will only be open a few more weeks and we are meeting some friends for some back to school put-put! Pray for me... I'm not sure how managing 5 kids with golf clubs is going to go over! :)

We are also continuing to muddle through the adopting out of birth order issues. It is still hardest on Faith and even though most of the time her and Joy are great friends and siblings they still have their intense moments. Faith just bluntly says she wanted a younger sister and even though Joy acts younger and is considerably smaller the feeling is still there. The two girls' personalities are SO similar that they are the most threatened by one another. Joy wants ANYTHING that Faith has which bothers Faith. I have had to get very blunt with Joy and just tell her that is something Faith had or got when Joy was in China. They both have had different experiences and there really isn't going to be any making up for lost time. Joy has things and experiences that Faith won't have also and she can be glad for those. At some point she will have to realize and accept that also. We have done our absolute best at getting her things that all the girls have and I realize she just wants to make sure she is loved as much as every one else... but it wears at me for sure! I've taken her upstairs and showed her the amount of dresses she has (which is more than her sisters) when she was pouting about Grace getting new one from a grandparent. To that she looked at the closet and said, "OH!" Glad my point was made. Other trickets and things just can't be duplicated though. Like I said most of time they have such a great time together but everyone just wants to know that they are loved the same as they were or as much as everyone else so we are grateful for these times to reassure them even though the moments can be mentally exhausting! In so many ways it is similar to birthing a child! The new child really does require more attention initially. We have been blessed at Joy's easy transition so it has minimized the issues that could be. Even if God would have added a younger child to our family there would be adjustments to be made so the bottom line during the hard moments is "Did God lead us to this point?" "Absolutely so He will supply all of our needs... including those of the children that have been in our family for longer!" In Him alone do we trust for everything!

We are super excited over an opportunity to start an adoption ministry at our church! More details including a cool name and logo to follow in the days ahead. One of the really fun parts is that we know 5 different adoptive families in our area that go to 5 different churches so the hope is that we can work together to impact more people and in turn more children in forever families! God is good to give us the desires of our heart when our hearts are focused on Him for sure! Now would someone please adopt the little guy in the picture to the right! I stay up most nights praying for a family to bring him home!!!

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